


A Completely Normal Lewis-Barnes Christmas

by Windlight



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Christmas, F/M, Family, Fluff, I'll Be Home For Christmas, Mama Darcy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 00:22:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13306446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windlight/pseuds/Windlight
Summary: A look into a Lewis-Barnes Christmas.





	A Completely Normal Lewis-Barnes Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> So, I was craving some angst with a fluffy happy ending. It’s a teensy bit late…but I hope it works? Thanks for stopping by

Sitting alone at her kitchen table in the dark was becoming a regular practice and it was one Darcy wasn’t at all sure she approved of. Moping usually wasn’t an option she gave herself. At least, not when feelings could be buried behind action and responsibilities. Chalk it up to having parents with the ultimate can-do outlook on life, never mind that all four of them could certainly afford to approach life with that attitude. 

The problem was that her husband wasn’t home and hadn’t been for the past three and a half months. Bucky had been sent on a mission that had required the big guns otherwise known as the Captain-Winter-Widow 3-for-1 Special. Still, Darcy had to acknowledge that it wasn’t as if he was called out regularly anymore.

His heroic heart was never going to be a point of contention for Darcy in their relationship and she constantly made sure that he knew it. Still, ever since they’d gotten married, Bucky had chosen to keep an even lower profile than he’d been keeping, surfacing as his soldier alter-ego only when needed. Then, when a pair of six year old twins had come along and they’d decided to adopt, he tried not to be away from home for anything that his presence wasn’t necessary for.

They’d been married for three years and parents for two and Darcy had tried hard not to get so down about his first Christmas and New Years apart from her and the kids. Not especially after the year the world had had and how everywhere she looked, things were just so impossibly messy. 

At the end of the day he was her home. Which meant, in the cheesiest way possible, she wasn’t home. At least, not completely.

Sighing at her melodramatic self, she forced herself to get up and turn on the kettle. Darcy peered up at the floating wooden wall shelves, a housewarming gift that Dad Banner had made himself, above the kettle and perused her tea collection for the perfect blend to fit her mood or soothe it. She decided on a favourite of hers, chamomile and mint, with a hint of lemongrass. Grabbing a mug that she’d used earlier in the day from the dish rack, she placed it by the kettle to use in a bit.

Darcy returned to her seat and waited for the kettle to boil. She’d initially thought to drown her sorrows in work but despite being several days into the new year, she’d already burned through her to-do lists and then some. It was getting harder not to feel like she was turning into her Pop more and more these days. 

She huffed at herself in amusement, thinking of what her mom would say to that. Her mother would probably wrap her in a hug, before leaning back to look at her with the same blue eyes that she saw everyday in the mirror. Then, Betty would smile warmly and say something incredibly endearing about how Darcy was the Ross/Stark Phenomenon and therefore was only made up of the best parts of one Betty Ross and one Tony Stark. 

Best parts or not, if she hadn’t failed at providing her children with the quality holiday experience they desperately deserved, it was due to friends and family. Those precious few that had stepped in, acknowledged her blue funk and worked around and through it.

Thanksgiving had been a smashing success and that was only because she’d had the magnificent and heavily pregnant Helen and her equally magnificent but not quite so pregnant fiancé, Sam, around to help keep things lively and needless to say, the man could cook. Anybody and everybody knew that. 

She’d also noted that Pietro had all but glued himself to Helen’s side the entire night, volunteering to run errands for her whenever she so much as took a step in any direction. All three adults had shared several giggles over his new, yet sweet behaviour long after the kids had gone to bed.

Then, Christmas and New Years and had come and gone and so had both sets of her parents. Mom and Dad Banner and Ma Potts and Pop had made Christmas at the Lewis-Barnes household a priority, seeing as one-fourth of the household wouldn’t be able to make it to the end of year festivities. That and her twins seemed to flourish from any and all attention they received from their grandparents. Wanda, as usual, turned into her Dad’s shadow, following him around in her quiet way, absorbing the steady warmth Bruce Banner always emitted.

Of course, her soulmates, Jane and Thor had taken residence in their designated room, for whenever they stayed over, and had helped keep things running smoothly just by being there. Thor had outdone himself with the Christmas decorations this year, incorporating some distinctly Asgardian themes.

Mom and Pepper turned distracting Darcy into a tag-team activity while Pop stuck to what he did best, showering his loved ones with gifts and pestering his daughter whenever possible. Between her parents and Jane and Thor, Wanda and Pietro would be set for the next four Christmases, really. 

As for her father, his displays of affection were tricky in that they never seemed like displays of affection to anyone outside their inner circles. This year he’d gone back to an old argument he liked to resurrect every few years, the one where Tony kept trying to convince Darcy to forsake her grandmother’s maiden surname in order to finally become a Stark in name as well as blood. She’d stuck to her guns on that one.

Back in the present, the kettle’s switch clicked off, signalling that the water had boiled. Darcy made her cup of tea then sat back down, absorbing the heat from the mug and inhaling the soothing scents. She’d give it a minute to cool before taking her first sip.

New Year’s Eve had been a relatively quiet family affair for the three of them, due to the way schedules had worked out but Darcy really hadn’t minded. She didn’t think that Pietro and Wanda had minded either. An automatic smile spread across her face just thinking of the Last Great Baking Adventure of 2017. The resulting mess had been worth it. The twins had been so excited to share their goodies with the mailman a few days later.

Those two precious souls had been another reason she’d fought so hard not to be the zombie she was tempted to be some days. While Pietro sometimes liked to seem to be oblivious when it came to his surroundings, he could be as perceptive as his sensitive sister and tended to need subtle reassurances. Wanda, though usually shy and retiring, could burn as bright as her brother when she saw fit, providing glimpses of a will made of steel. Darcy absolutely loved learning these things about them.

They were just starting to grow roots in their new life and while the horrors they’d faced in Sokovia would always haunt them in some way or form, the loss of their family and being hunted for simply existing as mutants, she hoped for them. With all of her heart she hoped for the two little lives that had come into her care. Into their care. 

All it had taken was Bucky showing up with a child in each arm after a particularly gruelling mission, looking a little too close to losing it, with an incredibly grim Steve standing right behind him with their bags. She’d taken in the emaciated little bodies that clung to Bucky with the type of desperation that broke Darcy’s heart and at the same time cemented their future as a family. She hadn’t asked questions. Hadn’t asked how it came to be that the opportunity to adopt the children had come so easily, and frankly wasn’t interested in knowing. She still wasn’t. They were her children and that was that.

It was getting late. She needed to be up early to get the house ready for Doc McCoy’s dinner visit. Both of her kids were enamored with the giant, blue sweetheart, and so was she, to be honest. Slowly, but surely, she was trying to introduce a relatively safe mutant network to the twins, and offer them an alternative worldview to the things they’d already learned about how the world saw them and how they saw themselves. His visits were a huge part of that effort.

Darcy took her cup of tea and left the kitchen to head upstairs to her bedroom, intent on getting at least some sleep tonight.

\- - - - -

Her eyes cracked open but shut immediately at the brightness of mid-morning that lit up her room. As she lay in bed wondering how she’d overslept when she hadn’t been sleeping since Bucky left, it dawned on her that the kids were talking amongst themselves from one of their rooms.

No. Someone was talking to them. A deeper tone, compared to the voices of her children. A voice she would recognize anywhere. Her eyes started watering the second she opened them. Darcy sat up and slowly got out of bed, starting to tiptoe towards the sounds coming from the hallway.

She stopped cold at the sight of Bucky’s metal arm on her dresser and her heart stuttered before it kicked into a staccato rhythm, pushing the rest of her into motion. Darcy swiped at the tears streaming down her cheeks, trying to hold in the sniffles that were heralding the coming of The Waterworks. She continued tiptoeing into the hallway and moved towards Wanda’s room where everyone was.

“…and then he tried to race me but I always win.” The smug satisfaction behind Pietro’s lightly accented voice was enough to bring a grin to Darcy’s face, despite her tears, as she simultaneously rolled her eyes. Her cheeky son.

There was a smacking sound, probably a high-five being exchanged as Darcy crept up to the slightly open door and peeked inside.

“S’my boy,” her husband rumbled from where he sat on the floor in the middle of Wanda’s room.

Pietro was clinging to Bucky’s broad back like a spider monkey, chattering away a mile a minute as he mixed English with Sokovian whenever it suited him. Wanda on the other hand was methodically laying out her Christmas haul in front of Bucky. The last of which was a beautiful pearl comb Thor had brought from Asgard, as a gift for a little princess.

Wanda peered down at the comb she was holding for a moment before looking up at Bucky, who was watching her tenderly, and held the comb out to him. He stiffened for a split-second but it was enough for Pietro to sense, as he went quiet, waiting to see what Bucky would do.

Bucky gently reached out and took the comb from Wanda and motioned for her to turn and sit on his lap so he could brush her hair. He arranged his legs so that he was sitting cross-legged and Wanda sat down daintily, ready for her hair to be brushed for the day. Pietro, not missing a beat, continued with his stories.

Darcy watched her husband raise his arm to brush her hair and realized the problem belatedly. She bit down on her bottom lip, feeling crushed for her husband. After particularly harrowing missions, when he came home, Bucky would only initiate contact with his family when he wasn’t wearing his metal arm. It was a way of providing distance from the horrors he didn’t want them facing.

She made up her mind to step in and save the situation when she felt something tap her on the shoulder. Jumping in fright she twirled around, only to be face to….metal arm? What the hell?

Bucky’s metal arm was enveloped in a red glow, the type of red glow that only showed when Wanda displayed her powers. Now feeling completely humbled, Darcy moved out of the way and watched tearfully as Wanda brought her adopted father his metal arm through the use of her gifts. Bucky stared at the arm for a moment, though Pietro made sure he didn’t stare at in silence, before swallowing hard and putting down Wanda’s comb to grab his arm and re-attach it. Not once had Wanda moved from her position on his lap. 

Bucky picked the comb up again and asked, “D’you want me to braid it too, baby girl?”

Wanda nodded and Pietro launched into a story about how high he’d seen Doc McCoy jump during one of his visits.

Darcy turned and headed back to her room giving the trio their time.

\- - - - -

Darcy waited in their room until she heard his footsteps down the hallway, heading towards their room. She let him have his time with the kids, knowing what those moments meant to him. They’d gone downstairs, so she assumed he’d set them up with something to eat for breakfast.

The moment Bucky appeared in the door way, Darcy flew into his arms, peppering his face with kisses. He held her tightly to himself, before touching her all over, reassuring himself of her presence. Then he began to kiss her back, gently at first, short smooches that sought comfort. As was inevitable, the heat between them grew to a low simmer and their deepening kisses began to linger. Reluctantly, ever so reluctantly, Darcy pulled back first. There was no time for anything more.

“Welcome home, babe.”

“It’s damn good to be back, love.”

They held each other for several moments, simply breathing the other in.

“You didn’t take down the Christmas decorations.”

“I-I couldn’t,” Darcy admitted sheepishly. “Thor did such a great job on them.”

Bucky snorted and Darcy chuckled at the sound of it.

“Good. We’re hosting a Christmas/New Years Party next weekend. Everyone’s coming and it’s all settled.”

Darcy blinked up at his smiling, smug face.

“Excuse me? We’re almost halfway through January, babe.”

Bucky pursed his lips and nodded before answering.

“I told you I’d be home for Christmas, didn’t I?”

Darcy’s laughter stole her breath away.


End file.
